Real Wedding – French and Italian Style Combine for this Elegant Wedding at a Royal Palace in London

To continue our series celebrating 15 years in Wedding Planning for Stylish Events, this week I would like to feature one of my favourite weddings of all time: Pauline and Luca at The Orangery at Kensington Palacein 2015.

Thank you to the fabulous Kate Nielen for providing these beautiful images of the day.

From the moment Pauline and Luca went to afternoon tea at The Orangery at Kensington Palace, Pauline knew it was where she wanted to have her wedding.

Pauline and Luca’s Wedding at The Orangery at Kensington Palace

The Orangery was once the setting for Queen Anne’s sophisticated court entertainment and its soaring ceilings and classical 18th century architecture were a magnificent backdrop for this classic and elegant Summer wedding.

Pauline, who is French, and Luca, an Italian, have both lived in London for many years and they have a beautiful son together. They wanted to create a chic wedding, with many warm and intimate touches to ensure their 120 guests from around the world experienced a very special wedding day.

As two busy professionals, they also wanted to hire a wedding planner to assist them to create their wedding day. So, after booking the venue and the church, the next supplier they booked was Stylish Events.

With Pauline’s exquisite French style and Luca’s Italian sense of fun, the day was a quintessentially classic wedding, with thoughtful touches, at one of London’s most prestigious venues.

The night before the wedding the Bride stayed in the Royal Suite at The Goring Hotel, which is actually the same suite that Katherine, Duchess of Cambridge, spent the night before her marriage to William, the Duke of Cambridge.

After the ceremony, Pauline and Luca were chauffer driven to Kensington Palace in the Bentley, whist all the guest travelled on the double-decker buses.

On arrival at The Orangery at Kensington Palace guests were greeted with champagne, canapes and an amazing anti-pasti bar (for an Italian touch), served by the fabulous team from Rhubarb. Music was provided by the Meridian String Quartet.

The Orangery was decorated in classic green and white, with stunning high and low flower arrangements by Sue and the team at Lavender Green and a tablescape designed by the Bride, Stylish Events and Rhubarb. The “chandelle” chairs by Great Hire completed the sophisticated look perfectly.

Pauline and Luca wanted to make their special day just as special for their son and the many children of their family and friends. So, the children had their own fun and entertainment, expertly looked after by JoJo Entertainment.

Following a splendid five course meal by Rhubarb, Pauline and Luca cut their gorgeous cake and took to the round dance floor for their first dance, with production by Fisher and music by DJ Rich T. The guests were wonderfully entertained by the French magician, Etienne Pradier .

As darkness started to fall on a lovely Summer’s evening, guests were invited on to the terrace for a lavish dessert station by Rhubarb and the children chilled in their own room being read bedtime stories or watching films.

At the end of the evening Pauline and Luca were whisked away to spend their first evening together as a married couple at The Goring Hotel.

Of course a high-end wedding of this size needs a wonderful team of suppliers and you can see everyone involved below. It also needs a great team from Stylish Events, we actually had 12 people on our team that day and I am so grateful to everyone for working so hard – huge thank you to:

And finally, I wish to say an enormous thank you to Pauline and Luca for selecting me as their wedding planner. They were so delightful to work with from start to finish and it was an absolute honour to be part of their very special wedding.

“Dominique really tried to make sure that every single aspect of our wedding was going to be as smooth as possible for us so that we could enjoy our big day. Not only did everything go perfectly and on the day we had nothing to think about apart from living the event, but Dominique and her team managed to turn all the preparation work in a series of meetings which became very enjoyable and special moments in the run up to our wedding.

We were very sad to see the last meeting gone. What is the “difficult” part of getting married, the organisation, it became something to enjoy, to look forward to and so for us the “big day” was the wedding together with a long period of special moments in the run up to it which we will never forget.

Dominique for us will not only be linked to quality, but also to the magic to be able to make every necessary thing to be done around the event, something to enjoy and look forward to.

She was our angel for this special moment in our lives.”
Pauline and Luca, 2015